Head covering



June 20, 1961 E. ROLLlNS-DUDLEY 2,988,748

HEAD COVERING Filed March 17, 1958 INVENTOR ELLEN LYNN ROLLINS-DUOLEY ATTORNEY United States Patent 2,988,748 HEAD COVERING Ellen Lynn Rollins-Dudley, Live Oak, Fla. (4571 Sunny Lane Ave., Apt. 5, West Palm Beach, Fla.) Filed Mar. 17, 1958, Ser. No. 721,949 2 Claims. (Cl. 2-202) This invention relates to a head covering.

It is common in head coverings to fold a rectangular piece of cloth diagonally or otherwise for use as a head covering or head dress. Such piece of cloth is hereinafter called a bandana. It is common also to provide means for fastening at each side or end of the fold so that the bandana can be folded under the chin or behind the ears and it is common to affix a band of separate material joined together by sewing or otherwise to facilitate the fastening.

Previous devices and inventions of this type have however had the disadvantages of being less economical to make than the present device, of being impracticable to stamp out or cut out so as to be mass-produced, of being difficult to wash because of unequal shrinkage of the two different materials where a separate headband was used, and of variations in color after washing, and of being more elaborate in appearance than normally catches the fancy in such types of head dress.

I have found that by my invention these disadvantages may be overcome and the head dress produced more simply and in much shorter time, requiring less material, being more casual in appearance, and less elaborate looking, and capable of being cut or stamped from one piece of material and requiring only one pattern. The head dress being all in one piece the hazards of shrinkage and color change involved in cleaning joined materials of even the same type are avoided.

The object of my invention is to form a head covering of new and improved construction and appearance and ease of manufacture.

In the drawings the figures represent the following:

FIGURE l-perspective view of a combined headband and scarf,

FIGURE 2-rear perspective view,

FIGURE 3sectional view taken on a line 3-3 of FIG. 4,

FIGURE 4-plan view,

FIGURE 5-schematic view showing one of several methods of wearing.

FIGURE 6--plan view of pattern.

The device can be made by cutting manually but the best way of making the head dress is by stamping or cutting multiple pieces from a pattern, the best way of making which is as follows:

A 25" x 25" (for example) piece of material is folded diagonally on a fold line 8 to provide a larger triangular portion 7 and a smaller triangular part 9' so that the shortest distance from a corner edge of the fold 8 is approximately l2 /2", leaving the measurements of the fold from one side to the other roughly 23 /2. Starting at the right side with the folded front edge next to the operator, a triangular notch 19 is cut (the forward edge of which is part of the fold) starting from a point in the right side of the bandana about inch away from the corner made by the fold intersecting it and thence making a cut to intersect the fold at a point about 4" from the right edge of the fold. Thus a triangular piece is cut out leaving an opening in the bandana with a relatively high apex and a narrow base. Thesame thing is done at the left side of the fold.

At the right side then a slash 18 is made with the material in folded position. A slash is distinguished from a notch by the fact that it cuts the material but does not remove any of it whereas in a notch a portion of the ma- 2,988,748 Patented June 20, 1961 terial is removed. The slash is about 6" long, commences at the same point as did the notch and cuts through both pieces of material for a distance of about fiinches, and, forming an angle of about 15 degrees with the near edge of the notch, it creates a pointed tab of double thickness. In the folded under part, on each side, a cut is made from the apex of the notch 18 to an edge of the bandana removing triangular piece of cloth 21. If desired, a strip of fabric defined by the area 20 in FIG. 6 may be cut away at one or both edges of the piece 7.

At this point there is in the folded part of the bandana a notch cut at each end through both thicknesses of the material and a slash at each end. The material forward from a line at 6a joining the two rear edges of the slash will become the band 15 of the head covering and at this stage each end of the band consists of a double thickness of the material in the form of double thickness pointed tabs.

For the purposes of the invention these end tabs can be left pointed but the best and most attractive way of putting the invention into use is to trim the tabs of one pair so that they are of rounded shape 14 by cutting 01f in rounded form rather less than one-half (for example) of the tab created by the intersection of the slash and the notch.

The left tab 13 is now somewhat shortened by making a cut or slash which joins the original slash to form at the left side (in this case) a somewhat shortened but still pointed tab of double thickness. Thus at the right hand side there is a double thick rounded tab composed of overlying parts 14 and at the left side a double thick pointed tab 13.

If the bandana is then unfolded there is produced the pattern shown in FIG. 6 and from which can be stamped or cut numerous quantities of the basic shape of this head dress.

The head covering is completed by the application of binding material such as bias tape '6 to the band as described below and by the construction of fastening and adjusting means such as a button-hole 11 for selective engagement with the buttons 10 and co-operating with a ring 12, to lit the band to the wearers head and to permit it to be adjusted as to size and to be fastened.

When the basic shape of the bandana has been completed it is folded along the fold line 8 described above and a bias tape or other binding 8a is applied to the fold over the fold line 8 and preferably in the following manner. The tape 8a is sewn by stitching 17 to enclose along its own length the forward edge of the band defined by the fold line 8, commencing at the left forward side (leaving approximately one inch of the binding material loose) thence binding the forward edge or fold line 8 of the band to and around the rounded tab 14 to the inner or left end of the right slash, whereupon the binding 8a is sewn by stitching 16 or otherwise aflixed through both parts 7 and 9, the binding thus forming a rear edge for the band upon the top of the head dress, and continuing to the right extremity of the left slash where again it encloses both thicknesses of the slash along the rear of the left tab 13 which it passes around and is joined to the loose part of the beginning of the binding to form a pointed part of the tab consisting of the beginning and the end of the binding material.

Fastening devices are placed on the two tabs following well known methods, such as the placing of a ring '12 or loop of metal or plastic or other similar substance over the pointed tab and this tab being then folded under and stitched down or otherwise attached to the under part of the bandana at, for instance, a point about an inch from the left edge of the left slash. Thus we have a ring confined within the loop thus formed by the doubled over pointed tab. The purpose of this ring is to enable the end of the other tab to be passed through it and be fastened down upon itself by engagement of a button-hole 11 with one of a series of fastening devices such as buttons or a snap fastener thus enabling the band to be tightened or loosened as desired. The tabs 14 passed through the ring 12 and doubled over and maintained in such doubled over position as shown in dotted lines in FIG. 1. Thus the band now becomes the front part of the bandana and fastens in any one of several positions which are optional with the wearer and enables the bandana to stay reasonably Well fixed to the wearers head.

In view of the wear caused by repeated fastening and unfastening and other manipulations it is desirable to have, between the two thicknesses of material making up the band, a third thickness of some washable material. This can be inserted before the binding is sewn on to the securing tab and to the fold which permits one sewing to do the whole job of attaching the binding and reinforcing the snaps and other fastenings, or it can be done in two operations.

A bias tape is preferred because such tapes are flexible and tend to prevent the material from getting out of shape. Thus biasing bindings or tapes are needed to prevent, discourage or resist the stretching of the material. Such stretching causes wrinkles which are objectionable. In addition bias binding produces a clinging effect which is not obtainable otherwise and which prevents the bandana slipping. This tendency to cling eliminates the need for such devices as pins and so on to hold the bandana to the head and keep it from slipping backwards. The forward and rear edges of the band when they are thus bound tend to cling.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A method of making a head covering apparel device, comprising taking a substantially rectangular section of fabric and folding the fabric upon itself upon a line which is substantially parallel with and spaced from a diagonal line extending between oppositely arranged corners of the substantially rectangular fabric section and thereby forming an outer large tapered section and an inner small tapered section, arranging the converging edges of the outer large tapered section substantially parallel with and spaced from the converging edges of the inner small tapered section, forming elongated strips upon the outer and inner sections adjacent to the folding line and forming the elongated strips integral with said sections and forming the longitudinal edges of the strips which are integral with the large fabric section separate from the adjacent edges of the large fabric section, forming the longitudinal edges of the strips which are integral with the small fabric section separate from the adjacent small fabric section, forming the inner adjacent edges of said strips separate from each other, arranging the strips of the large fabric section in overlapping relation with the strips of the small fabric section, arranging a tape upon the outer face of the large fabric section and extending the tape to the overlapping strips, attaching the tape to the large and small fabric sections by passing a line of stitching through said tape and such sections and spacing the tape and line of stitching from the folding line of the large and small fabric sections and thereby forming a two layer band integral with the large and small fabric sections, arranging the overlapping strips so that they form continuations of said band, transversely folding the ends of the tape over the adjacent edges of the overlapping strips and stitching the folded tape to said overlapping strips, extending a second tape longitudinally of the folding line and transversely folding the second tape about the folding line and the adjacent edges of the overlapping strips, and attaching the second tape to the large and small fabric sections and said overlapping strips by a line of stitching passing through the tape and the large and small fabric sections and through the overlapping strips, the connected strips forming attaching elements which are separate from the adjacent edges of the large and small fabric sections and are adapted to be connected to one another.

2. A head covering apparel device, comprising a sub stantially rectangular single layer fabric section having oppositely arranged corners and a diagonal line extending between said corners, said single layer fabric section having a fold line parallel with the diagonal line and spaced from said diagonal line, said device comprising an outer large tapered section and an inner small tapered section underlying the large tapered section, said large and small tapered sections having converging edges which are sub stantially parallel and are spaced, said large tapered section and the small tapered section being provided adjacent to the line of folding with elongated strips which are integral therewith, said small inner section having notches adjacent to its strips, the strips of the outer and inner fabric sections being arranged in overlapping re lation, a tape disposed over the folding line of the outer and inner fabric sections and over the adjacent edges of said strips and stitched to the same, a second tape arranged upon the outer face of the large tapered fabric section and spaced from the first-named tape and said line of stitching to provide a two layer band which is integral with the large and small sections, the last-named tape being in alignment with the inner edges of the connecting elements, the last-named tape extending about the inner edges of the connecting elements and arranged upon the outer face of the large fabric section and stitched to the large and small fabric sections and to the connecting elernents, said connecting elements having their inner edges separate from the adjacent edges of the outer large fabric section, and means for detachably connecting the connecting elements.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,537,751 Cookson May 12, 1925 2,574,208 Crowthers Nov. 6, 1951 2,767,403 Givens Oct. 23, 1956 2,824,311 Barnett Feb. 25, 1958 

